Venus Flytrap
Dionaea muscipula · Plant
The Venus flytrap catches insects with hinged leaf traps. It grows naturally only in a small area of boggy coastal plain in the Carolinas, USA.
Key facts
- Scientific name
- Dionaea muscipula
- Kind
- Plant
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable (IUCN VU)
- Habitat
- Coastal bogs · wet savanna
- Range
- Coastal plain of North and South Carolina
- Size
- Traps up to about 4 cm
- Lifespan
- Can live 20+ years
- Diet
- Photosynthesis + insects
- Activity
- Traps close in a fraction of a second
- Population
- Restricted to a small native range
Diet
Makes food by photosynthesis but digests insects and spiders to get nitrogen missing from its poor, boggy soil.
Behavior
A trap only snaps shut when its trigger hairs are touched twice within about 20 seconds, so raindrops do not waste its energy.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Plantae
- Phylum
- Tracheophyta
- Class
- Magnoliopsida
- Order
- Caryophyllales
- Family
- Droseraceae
- Genus
- Dionaea
- Species
- D. muscipula
Conservation
Vulnerable: its tiny native range is shrinking and wild plants are illegally collected.
Main threats
- Poaching
- Habitat loss
- Fire suppression